Job Responsibilities of an Account Manager
As an account manager, it would be your responsibility to set up individual and team targets, quotas, objectives etc and see that they are all achieved. You would be required to develop, maintain, and also establish new client relationships on the long term basis, taking care of the current account at the same time. You will also be required to do client negotiations and finalize the deal. You would have to look out for new business avenues and opportunities. Apart from this, it would be your sole duty to initiate the communication from the organization's side and to ensure the decision makers involved are fully aware of the requirements of a potential client and existing clients too. This is imperative to ensure that the organization finds new avenues to sell its services and products. As an account manager, it would be your responsibility to work towards promoting services and products to existing and new clients.
Required Skills for the Post of an Account Manager
To excel as an account manager, one is expected to have exceptional interpersonal skills because it is the prime duty of an account manager to develop and nurture relationships. He or she must also possess great organizational skills, as an account manager is required to supervise and co-ordinate the operation of several teams working simultaneously on several accounts.
Comprehension of various processes and techniques of sales is a must in all candidates. A sales manager is expected to work independently. Although they may take the opinions of his colleagues or subordinates on various issues, the final responsibility of the decisions made are his and he will need to stand by them at all costs without putting the blame on anybody else. The account manager should require any supervision as he is expected to be self motivated and should have the "zing factor" to influence others to work efficiently. Account management is a result-oriented domain and it is imperative that all the hard work he or she puts in translates positively from the organization's point of view. Otherwise, it reflects that he or she does not have what it takes to meet the company's requirements and is a burden on the company's resources.
Educational Criteria Required In This Field
Most of the employers seek candidates having a four-year certification or degree, that too within subjects like business administration, sales, accounts etc. Apart from these, an added advantage would be for candidates having at least a few years of professional or work experience.
Career and Salary
As an account manager, you can expect your salary to be around $60,000 per year and if you possess all the expertise, experience and the basic requirements then the chances of increased salary is high.
As per the studies and statistics, it has been found out that this field of employment and sales department would grow by about 9% in the next couple of years and the new decade holds immense promise to witness an exponential surge in requirement of qualified account managers, .
Account managers are a requirement in most of the industries and their requirement is always on a rise. These professionals are usually part of an organization's sales team. If you are trying to get a footing in this field, then you can always apply directly to the respective organizations.
